Award Tour Vol. 9: It's Better This Way

California dreamin:

Tre is a doctor. I am proud of this fact in part because you always like to have one in the family and there was no way I was going through 4 years of school just so we could say it. Part of this “doctoring” thing is getting through school, the other part is a process called “matching” where medical students make a list of their preferred places of residency and the hospital make a list of their preferred students, and they all meet somewhere in the middle – kinda like a BCS Bowl for Medical students, only… not like the BCS Bowl System (obviously I’m having trouble describing this). Anyway I say all this to say that Tre is on his way to sunny California to start his Residency at King-Drew medical. If you’re Cali, you know where that is. I’m not from Cali. So all I’m thinking is Baywatch, boobs, and silicone. No seriously. That was it. And visions of sugar plums continued to dance in my head about this trip to L.A. until we got on the 105 (for the uninitiated that’s Interstate 105). That's when I started seeing signs like SLAUSSON, CRENSHAW, and IMPERIAL. Not familiar with these names? I wasn’t really either… but I don’t remember any of these on Baywatch. I’m not even seeing billboards for Pamela Anderson (and that really is disappointing). So what exactly is going on here.

Why is it feeling like the further we drive the further away we’re getting from Baywatch? Why does it feel like we’re traveling to the “the darkside of the moon” in the broad day light?

Tre: What’s our next turn

Me: I’m looking for the exit now, hey where exactly is King-Drew

Tre: Compton

Me: Huh?

Tre: Compton, King-Drew is in Compton, well… Compton and Watts

Me: <sad look> I don’t remember that being in the brochure

No more California dreamin', no palm trees, no silicone (actually there were still palm trees). It doesn’t just feel like we’re driving to the dark side of the moon, we ARE driving to it. Now that I think about it, I wondered why traffic seemed to thin out so dramatically once we got on the 105 and headed for King Drew Medical. Since I was supposed to be navigating our way into the city, I didn’t have time to pay attention to anything except that Rand McNally Atlas in front of me (if I had looked up, I suspect I would have seen people in the East bound lane of the 105 screaming from their cars, “No - GO BACK, GO BACK”) but now in retrospect I understand why so many of the exits we were looking for were free and clear - no one is in a rush to go to the hood.

What’s crazy about it is the parts I Compton I went to didn’t look like any hood that you’d expect to have with the reputation it has. It’s not the traditional towering empire of “brick” tenements. It’s suburbs. I kid you not. It is Suburbs. If someone blindfolded you and dropped you in the middle of the city and you opened your eyes you would have no idea you were in the hood…

…until they started shooting. And for those of you who have never really heard gun shots you probably wouldn’t even have noticed it at first. Hell I didn’t. I thought Tre was popping a bag of popcorn one night and realized the frequency of the popping was too slow. When I went to go check the microwave (to make sure the popcorn wasn’t burning) I found that there was no popcorn. Tre wasn’t even up. He was in the other room chilling. Since it was relatively close to 4^th of July (ok actually it was in the middle of June – but “close” is a relative term and in horseshoes and hand grenades it’s enough) I just assumed it was some kids getting a hold of some fireworks early. It took a few moments of careful listening and Tre’s confirmation to determine that it wasn’t fireworks and it wasn’t popcorn; it was a 21 gun salute - without the salute. Go figure.

Is it possible that in reality, what we heard was a combination of fireworks and gun play? For the sake of my sanity and (in an effort to manufacture a happy ending to this blog entry) I’m going to say yes. In fact I am going to convince myself (with reasonable logic) that it was the greatest likelihood. And then I’m going to take that Ice Cream Sundae and throw some sprinkles on top of that. And you know what? Those sprinkles are going to form words. And you know what they’re going to say? Let me tell you, those sprinkles are going to spell out the words “it’s possible they were firing in the air to celebrate”. And there you go.

Just so you know, I’m going down this path with or without you…

…I suggest you just get on board, put your bags in the overhead bin, and stare out the window like you see nothing wrong. It’s better this way.